In our experience, UK businesses aren’t short of ambition when it comes to AI: new tools are piloted, AI strategies are announced, and expectations about its integration are set at a Board level. Yet progress often stalls and many businesses are failing to see the impact and return on the investment they are hoping for. The reason being their workforce isn’t ready to use AI in a meaningful way – the technology is available but the capability to use it effectively in day-to-day roles is not.
In looking for solutions, many businesses and organisations are focused on external support and have grown increasingly reliant on hiring new talent or buying new platforms. But in doing so, they are overlooking one of the most practical levers already available to them – the Growth and Skills Levy.
A strategic resource hiding in plain sight
The issue is no longer awareness. Most employers understand the levy and are using it. The real challenge is using it well. Too often, it is still treated like a voucher to be spent rather than an asset to be deployed, with the focus on utilisation over impact. That mindset is what holds businesses back when it comes to building meaningful AI capability.
Used strategically, the levy can act as a long-term workforce transformation fund. It provides a funded route to building practical, role-relevant AI skills across existing teams, reducing dependence on external hiring in a market where that option grows more expensive by the month.
That requires a more deliberate approach. Not ‘how do we use up our levy before it expires,’ but ‘what capabilities will this organisation need now and in the next 1-2 years and how do we build them at scale?’ The difference in outcome between those two approaches is the difference between short-term activity and long-term workforce transformation.
Where AI investment is falling short
Right now, there is a clear imbalance in how organisations are investing in, and approaching, AI. Investment in AI tools and platforms is rapidly increasing, yet investment in the people who will use them isn’t keeping pace.
The result is a familiar and frustrating pattern. New technologies are introduced, initial enthusiasm is high, and then adoption stalls because employees lack the confidence and digital skills to apply them effectively in their roles. This, therefore, creates a system-wide capability issue.
Apprenticeships offer a proven way to address this. Unlike short-term training interventions, they provide a blend of technical knowledge and practical application, allowing skills and capabilities to be applied in the business almost immediately and built on over time. This is critical for AI adoption, where understanding concepts is only part of the challenge. The real value comes from being able to apply those concepts in context, such as automating processes and improving customer experiences, within the specific environment and role an employee already works in.
What good looks like
Some organisations have already started to adopt a more strategic approach to AI. The Access Group, for example, has committed £1.5 million of its levy funding to enrol more than 100 employees onto AI-focused apprenticeship programmes, which have been created and delivered in partnership with us at QA.
Critically, this investment isn’t limited to a specialist function or a single seniority level but rather it spans the entire organisation and that breadth is intentional.
Unlike other technology-led transformation, AI adoption isn’t the responsibility of a small technical team. It requires a broader and deeper shift in how work gets done across the business. Embedding AI skills across an organisation unlocks more opportunities for innovation and ensures the benefits of new technology are felt more widely, not just at the top or in isolated pockets of capability.
The equity argument
There is also a broader, often neglected dimension to this conversation, but which matters deeply to the expansion of AI, which is “who gets left behind?”
Concerns about AI-driven job displacement are not abstract and are felt acutely by employees across every sector. Organisations that invest in their existing workforce send a clear signal that people remain central to their future as a business. This is incredibly valuable for building trust and shaping culture, and it is far more likely to drive genuine adoption of AI than any technology rollout alone.
When used well, the levy is one of the few mechanisms that can democratise access to high-quality AI skills development, making it available not just to early-career hires or specialist recruits, but to experienced employees who may have the most to contribute once properly equipped with the right digital skills.
Removing the internal barriers
Despite these benefits, many employers are still underutilising their levy for AI skills development. In some cases, this reflects a lack of awareness about the breadth of programmes now available. In others, it’s a structural problem: learning and development is not sufficiently integrated with strategic planning, and decisions about training sit too far from decisions about business direction.
To unlock the full potential of the levy, organisations need genuine collaboration between HR, learning and development and business leaders. That means identifying where AI capability will have the greatest impact and understanding where current skills gaps exist, and investing in structured pathways – such as apprenticeships – that address them.
The reality is that the tools to build AI capability already exist and the funding is already available to many UK businesses. The organisations seeing the strongest results in productivity and employee engagement are those that have stopped treating the levy as a cost centre and started using it as a strategic workforce enabler.
AI will not drive transformation alone. It is the combination of the right tools and skills, properly embedded across the workforce, that will determine which organisations deliver on their AI ambitions. And for many organisations, that journey can start with something they already have.
Jo Bishenden
Jo Bishenden is Chief Learning Officer at QA Ltd, one of the UK’s leading tech skills and training providers. Jo has worked across both public and private sector organisations, including international education, and previously held leadership positions at PA Consulting and Capgemini Invent, supporting universities and training providers to improve learning outcomes.
